Just found an old Well

[talisman]

Hi Steve, Many thanks for your offer of accessing historic maps for any signs of a well. I have sent a PM with my postcode



Stuart: that is a brilliant idea to use a post digging spade



John: After further investigation my understanding is there are a few underground streams in this area, one of which is only about 50 yards away so hopefully the well will not be too deep. (One of the houses in the road are complaining that their dining room floor is permanently damp, even in this weather)

[Mankysteve]

There no mention of mention of well to be honest I wouldn't expect it too have, a town/village well might but that isn't a town well.

The maps show the house appearing in 1890's before the land was agricultural use.

Now there was a collery(Does collery mean the same as Colliery) aprox 3000feet to the north west (located just the other side of the A3 at 51.01652,-0.954916) which appear properly on the map in the 1980s but there is woodland next door called collier's corpse which dates back which is on the first available map from  1860 so would presume it been there longer.  

No mention of mine working though. There was also lots of sand and chalk pits near by.

On side note I'm going to miss access there only meant for academic use but there interesting to have noise though now and again

[talisman]

51.01652,-0.954916 is one of the routes which I take for walking the dog, there are some old chalk and flint pits nearby which was primarily used for the construction of the local houses. Further over towards Stroud are Clay pits for the local produced bricks and towards Steep is a very large Sand pit.

Not to sure about collery or colliers copse ... charcoal ?

many thanks for delving into the maps

[renewablejohn]

If you go to geog.port.ac.uk  you can access a lot of old maps in the area. Had a quick look on Taylors map and there is a Stanbridge Kiln which would suggest coal mining in the area as at the time of the map kilns were located close to a coal or charcoal supply.

[Mankysteve]

Ive never head of the word collery apparently it's a common surname, There is marking on map from the 1960s that possible say winding shed but the text is obscured. It could well turn out to red heroin. 

[wesnet]

Any reference to collier in this area is going to be woodcollier ie charcoal burner and not a coal miner. There is no coal in this area only oil to the south.
This is an area of lower greensand with chalk to the south so any reference to kiln is normally lime kilns.

Incidentally some of us still use the name woodcollier to describe our job ie I make charcoal for living.

John

[biff]

finish off with a mix of 4 to 1 ballast to cement,then half a sheet of A142 , breath a sigh of relief,sure its not there at all at all.believe me,this is one thing you do not need at your back door.
                                    biff

[wesnet]

Addition to my last post there is also a huge chalk ridge to the north and west, How could I forget Stoner Hill!!!!!!!!!!

John

[Den]

It looks like it could be an old rain water cistern, especially if its close to the house ( I doubt a cess pit or tank would be sited outside the back door.) I found one on a renovation project about fifteen years ago. The lead(?) pipe would have fed a hand pump in the scullery.

There's nowt new about this rainwater harvesting lark, it's only common sense after all.

[Blodders]

That looks exactly like what we had outside our last house, near Nottingham, that was a rainwater cistern that the gutters emptied into. Mine was backfilled, much like yours, but my neighbours was still operational and had a semi-rotary hand pump to get the water out, he used it to water the garden, I suggested putting a sub pump in and feeding his toilets. That house was built in 1904 so very similar era to yours.